Month: July, 2011

Sometimes I wonder why I chose to study film and not something more practical. Well, yesterday I had an insight into why I made that decision. I was talking with a pathologist about her job when she made an observation that took me completely by surprise. She told me the most difficult thing about her job is keeping an open mind. She explained that she has seen her pathologist friends over the years go from being very “wide-minded” people to very narrow-minded people.

“It’s all about the job,” she said. “All day, every day, we look into a microscope. We intentionally narrow our vision. We must ignore everything else except this microscopic thing right in front of our eyes. I am not looking at a whole person to find their disease. I am only looking at a small piece of his kidney or her lung to find the disease. It begins to affect your outlook on life too.”

She went on to explain how she saw her pathologist friends narrow their views of morality, religion, politics, family life, etc. until they could no longer contextually evaluate anything. She finds she must be very intentional about keeping an open mind to not fall into the same rut as her colleagues.

As she was talking, the light bulb clicked on for me. “That’s why I chose to study mass communications!” I love gathering information from a variety of sources. I feel stifled if I am stuck with the same thing for too long. I feel the most fulfilled when I am in situations where I am encouraged to have an open mind. I want to live with a wide view.